


The First Time

by burnthiscityxx



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:14:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24895237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burnthiscityxx/pseuds/burnthiscityxx
Summary: "They’re not acquaintances, exactly. Definitely not friends. And the easiest explanation is because she’s a Kook and he’s a Pogue – although she absolutely hates those labels. At the most, they know of each other."In which Sarah Cameron meets John B, the Pogues, and maybe even herself.
Relationships: Sarah Cameron & John B. Routledge, Sarah Cameron/Everyone, Sarah Cameron/John B. Routledge
Comments: 11
Kudos: 66





	The First Time

**Author's Note:**

> I do not know where this came from. Like, I literally had no plot, no ideas, nothing - I just thought I'd start with one scene and then all of these came out of my fingers and it suddenly turned into a character study of Sarah Cameron and her interactions with the Pogues.
> 
> Anyway, let me know what you guys think - I had a lot of fun getting into Sarah's head, so I'd love to get your thoughts!

The first time Sarah Cameron meets John B, he’s leaning against the Cameron’s kitchen counter, spinning a pen knife in his hand. He’s dressed in a loud shirt, splashed with oranges and greens, and his hair is pushed out of his sun-kissed face by a backwards hat, and he nearly drops the pen knife when she walks in. He mumbles a greeting her way, she just tilts her head towards him, and decides to go the long way around to get to the fridge.  
  
They’re not acquaintances, exactly. Definitely not friends. And the easiest explanation is because she’s a Kook and he’s a Pogue – although she absolutely _hates_ those labels. At the most, they know of each other. He lives on The Cut, hangs out with two other boys and Kiara (that one stings a little, but she’s too stubborn to do anything about it), and works odd jobs.  
  
The day she meets him turns out to be his first day of work – he’s doing maintenance on their family boat, which means he’ll be around the house every now and again. She shrugs nonchalantly when her father tells her this, when he introduces them to each other awkwardly. Ward tells her to _be nice_ and Sarah rolls her eyes. She has nothing against John B, she doesn’t even know him. Still, it’s infuriating to be told what to do, so Sarah just shakes John B’s hand with a little too much force, just to prove a point, and leaves.

* * *

Sarah’s not a fan of the parties at the Boneyard, but it beats the stuffy country club soirees, which is why she’s stretched out on a low branch on a Saturday night, one arm dangling, her fingers loosely gripped around the mouth of a red solo cup. The Boneyard is filled with people and the music is painfully loud from some EDM playlist that pulses through her veins. She can hear the crackling flames from the fires, can almost feel them trickle up her arms, in her slightly tipsy stupor. Sarah doesn’t like getting wasted, but she does like the feel of being buzzed – it’s a happy place she sits comfortably in, her brain a little foggy, her limbs like jelly, and a lazy smile across her lips. It’s easy like this, all sea salt and sand, all the worries and pressures of being Ward Cameron’s daughter erased from her thoughts.  
  
Still, she knows she can’t stay like this forever.  
  
So she sits up, stretches her arms above her head, and in the middle of trying to focus on her breathing, someone knocks against her bare legs. She startles, drops her cup and spills the remnants of her beer onto the sand. Sarah’s mind works slower when she’s buzzed and she only hears someone cussing, before she finally notices a boy with bright, disheveled blonde hair, who’s apologizing profusely. She smiles at him, jumps off the branch and uses his shoulder to steady herself, tells him it’s fine, that she needs a refill anyway.  
  
Sarah only knows him as JJ, has seen him around the house once or twice when he drops John B off for work. He seems pretty harmless and he gets her a new drink in seconds, so she smiles at him and thinks this is why they hang out at the Boneyard. This is where class lines disappear, where it doesn’t matter where you live or how much you earn, where people are just people, not Kooks or Pogues or Tourons.  
  
Except it’s all shot to hell in the next second.  
  
Topper comes out of nowhere, punches JJ right in the mouth and then there’s shouting mixed with the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. In the chaos, she sees Rafe and Kelce getting involved, makes it three to one, which is so _unfair_ \- so she screams, lunges at Topper’s back and tries to wrestle him away from JJ. Instead, Topper’s elbow comes up, connects with Sarah’s cheekbone, and she falls, hot, blinding pain traveling up her face. It’s enough to make everyone stop, but gives a ten second window for John B to appear, fists flying towards Topper and Rafe. JJ staggers upright and then he’s jumping into the fight and Kiara’s yelling at them to cut it out, that the Kooks aren’t worth it.  
  
Sarah doesn’t realize she’s crying until the flashing lights appear and police car sirens ring out across the beach and she’s curls into herself, scared to death that she’s about to be trampled by teenagers. Someone grabs her arm, pulls her up, and she thinks it’s Topper, Rafe, or even Kelce – but it’s John B. John B and his calloused fingers on her bare skin, his other arm around her waist, half-pulling, half-dragging her up the beach. It surprises her, but she can’t help but feel a little bit safer, even though he won’t _shut up_ , apologizing for JJ and asking if she’s okay and that she should stay quiet. She doesn’t say much, because she kind of likes the way he’s warm and pressed against her, wonders briefly what it’d be like to have other parts of him pressed against her, too.  
  
But that’s crazy, she’s drunk and this is all going to vanish when the sun comes up. She’s going to forget this feeling, this drunk, lazy, hyper-sensitive buzz that vibrates everywhere his skin touches hers.  
  
And then Topper’s yanking her out of John B’s arms and it vanishes a lot quicker than she thinks.

* * *

Sarah breaks up with Topper eventually, can’t really get over the fact that he elbowed her in the face and never even apologized, just made some half-assed excuse about how he was actually defending her honor. Which is stupid, because JJ didn’t do anything, never tried anything, literally just brought her a refill. It’s insane and she can’t deal, so just like that, the king and queen of Kooks are done and over with. Sarah feels like she can breathe a little easier, but forgets that there are still shackles around her ankles in the form of being a Cameron still.  
  
She offers to run errands one day, which is how she ends up at Heyward’s to pick up a cooler box of seafood for Rose’s crab boil this weekend. She’s leaning against her car when a boy her age comes out of the shop, the cooler box in his hands and plastic bags balancing precariously on top of it. Sarah rushes forward, offers to help, but he waves her off and deposits everything into the trunk. His name is Pope, which she only knows because she heard John B yelling for him during the Boneyard scuffle. Pope has kind eyes, she decides, and she figures he’s really smart – he hands back exact change without using a calculator, makes an offhand comment about interest rates and debt. He remembers that Ward also ordered a few cases of beer, so he apologizes, goes back inside to get it, and Sarah is really struggling with why she’s supposed to hate Pogues so much.  
  
It’s then that John B strolls in, dressed in another one of his loud shirts – bright yellow this time and unbuttoned shamelessly low – with a bandanna around his neck. Sarah immediately remembers his arms around her waist and she blushes and _God_ , that’s embarrassing. He stops and says hi to her, but it’s wary and a little hesitant. She gets it though, they live in two separate worlds, the only thing that really connects them is one brief moment running from the cops. Weird.  
  
He asks if it hurts and it takes her a moment to realize he’s asking about her bruised cheek (which is a beautiful thing of purple, yellow, and blue). She shrugs, because yeah, it hurts, but it’s secondary compared to the fact that it was given to her by her boyfriend. John B mutters something that sounds like _you don’t ever hit women_ underneath his breath and Sarah smiles at that, decides to tell him that Topper is officially an ex-boyfriend – she gets a weird shrug and indifferent smile as a response.  
  
So obviously, she ends up spending the whole drive home wondering what the hell that means.

* * *

She’s sleeping off a hangover on the My Druthers when John B walks in, _loudly_. The clanging from the scuba tanks hitting the sides of the boat is enough to wake her up and she’s bleary-eyed, irritated, and still wrecked from the night before. She snaps at him, meaner than she should be, but he’s unfazed and that makes her even more irritated.  
  
He puts the tanks away and she mumbles a half-sincere apology, wonders if this is going to be a thing now, running into John B under circumstances she can’t plan for. He studies her for a second and she shifts under his gaze (finds herself liking it when his eyes are on her), then he takes a water bottle and offers it to her, says something about keeping hydrated after a hangover. She protests that she’s not hungover and he smirks at her in disbelief, eyebrow kinked and lip curled, and it shouldn’t make Sarah’s skin buzz, but it does.  
  
She doesn’t know how to handle it, so she snatches the water bottle from him, throws another smartass remark his way. He shrugs with an easy smile and it’s infuriating and sexy and how did she get here - crushing on a _Pogue_ , on _John B_ , of all people? 

* * *

Sarah stresses about school, spends nearly every waking minute doing SAT prep, until surprisingly, Ward forces her to take a break. That’s how she ends up laying out by the pool with Rose, relishing the way the sun warms her shoulders. It’s peaceful, she hears the water softly lapping at the docks, and a distant whirring. Rose is snoring quietly and Sarah looks over, gets hit with the realization that even if she scores on her SATs and goes to a kickass college – her life is already planned out and it looks a lot like her stepmother’s. It makes her skin crawl, thinking about how none of the hard work she's doing will matter because she’s destined to get stuck in the bubble wrap forever.  
  
The distant whirring gets louder and Sarah tries to place it, finally spots John B maneuvering a lawnmower across the Cameron’s lawn, because apparently he’s picked up some extra chores around the house, too. He’s not wearing a bright shirt this time around – he’s not wearing a shirt _at all_ \- just a bandanna around his neck and shorts hung low on his hips. Sarah’s brain practically short-circuits.  
  
He catches her eye and nods, pushes his fingers through the mess of curls on his head. There’s a smirk hidden somewhere on his lips and it shouldn’t make her body hum or her throat dry and she needs to _get it together_ , like right now.  
  
She sticks her tongue out at him, instead. 

* * *

She parks her car in the abandoned lot outside The Wreck, gets out and looks up at the restaurant with dread in her stomach. She’s not sure why Rose insisted on getting takeout for dinner from here and really hates the fact that Ward volunteered Sarah to go pick it up. But whatever, it’s been ages, and besides, Kiara might not even be there.  
  
But she’s the first person Sarah sees when she walks in and the sight of her ex-best friend nearly takes the wind out of her. Sarah can’t remember why they stopped being friends - maybe they just grew up and grew apart, maybe it has something to do with a birthday party, maybe it was the war between the Pogues and Kooks. But whatever it was, Sarah wishes they could just get along, for the most part. It’s exhausting, avoiding each other in a town as small as the Outer Banks. Plus, she kind of misses her best friend.  
  
Kiara is still all sharp edges and her words still cut like glass. She snatches the money out of Sarah’s hand, stomps to the kitchen to grab the food and practically slams all of it on the counter. Part of Sarah wants to reach out and try to find some semblance of common ground, but maybe time really does heal and maybe distance is what’s best for now. So she bites back a snarky retort and says bye in a neutral voice, takes the bags and leaves the shop, trying hard not to cry, because God, she does miss Kie and she misses unconditional friendship and it’s all a bit too much for her right now.  
  
John B nearly runs her over because they’re both not watching where they’re going - like he’s late for something and in a hurry and she’s running away. He apologizes over and over again, stops to help Sarah pick up some boxes that have fallen out of the bags she's carrying. When she doesn’t reply, his voice drops to a whisper, asks her if something happened between her and Kie. She wants to scream - _yes, we’re both being stubborn bitches, but I miss her, damnit_ \- but just turns her face away, hopes he doesn’t see her biting back tears.  
  
It doesn’t work.  
  
John B reaches for her, tilts her chin towards him and then she’s looking straight into his eyes and it’s like time stops. His brows are furrowed with worry, like he actually, genuinely cares - it’s almost enough to make her fall apart, right then and there.  
  
But then she hears a door slam and out of the corner of her eye, she sees Kie. It feels like it does fall apart, and she pushes John B’s hand away, grabs her bags, and leaves as quickly as she can. 

* * *

It starts pouring when Sarah realizes her tire is flat. She panics and calls Ward, which leads to John B driving his beat-up van (she later learns it’s called the Twinkie) to a road that’s clearly far from Figure Eight. He doesn’t ask why she’s driving closer to The Cut, closer to his own stomping grounds, but dutifully changes the tire for her, muttering under his breath about how everyone should learn how to change a damn tire. Sarah lets him grumble, because yeah, she’s a little embarrassed, but also because he looks like a dream, all defined, tanned muscles in another one of his stupidly loud and colorful shirts. She doesn’t know when she started thinking of him like this, sees him in a way that’s different than just another one of Ward’s employees.  
  
Two lightning strikes later, Sarah tells him to leave the flat tire, that he can just drive her back to Tanneyhill and they can just abandon the car. He looks at her like she’s ridiculous, then lightning strikes again, closer and louder this time, so he relents and they both climb into the Twinkie. The van smells exactly like she thinks it would - like banana and cocoa butter, like sea salt and surf, with a hint of weed. It takes a minute, but John B says sorry for the mess in the back and Sarah just smiles, because she likes it, tells him that so he doesn’t feel like he needs to be ashamed of it.  
  
The radio says there’s a storm coming in and that roads to Figure Eight are blocked by a freak accident, so they decide to head back to The Cut and that’s how she finds herself running from the Twinkie and into the Chateau.  
  
It’s jarring, being in what seems to be the center of Pogue land (she hates that she thinks of it like that), but strangely enough, it also feels a little like home. The Chateau is small and messy and it looks like a hurricane’s already blown through it. John B blames JJ for the way it looks and she just scoffs, because teenage boys are the worst. He’s completely unbothered by her presence in his space though, a stark contrast to how Sarah feels every time she sees him working on the Cameron’s boat. Instead, he lets her have free reign, her fingers every so often brushing over old pictures and papers.  
  
She meets him in the kitchen and he offers her a beer, which she takes, finishes nearly half in three gulps. It impresses him and he says so and she’s not sure why she’s feeling this way about a boy who’s genuinely thrilled about how fast she can drink a beer - it’s all a little ridiculous. But the rain keeps pelting down, clinking against the shoddy roof of the Chateau and when lightning strikes, John B’s shoulders tense a little and all she can think about is the way his arms fit around her waist, the way his fingertips felt under her chin, the way their eyes locked and the rest of the world vanished for a split second.  
  
She leans back against the kitchen counter, tries to make conversation without it veering into an awkward silence or snarky remarks tossed back and forth. It’s surprisingly easy - he’s like an open book, clams up only when his father is brought up, which is understandable. It’s somewhere between the topics of history and old shipwrecks that Sarah’s stomach rumbles and she clutches her waist, cheeks flushed. He laughs and it sounds like church bells and he says he’s got a box of granola bars somewhere.  
  
How he ends up right in front of her - she’s not sure.  
  
But there he is suddenly, his forehead almost touching hers, his arm reaching up to get to the cabinets behind her. She breathes him in and John B smells like rain, sweat, and the sea and he’s so, so close, she can hear his heartbeat. He finds the box of granola bars just as she sets her half-empty beer behind her and their eyes lock and it all feels like a fever dream.  
  
Her name barely makes it out of his mouth, before she crooks a finger into the bandanna around his neck to pull him closer and she takes it from him, her lips over his and _oh_ , this is what it’s like kissing John B.  
  
It’s like fireworks across her skin, like the beginnings of a really good buzz, like it’s easy and natural, like she can’t believe she’s never done this before. He has an arm wrapped around her back and one hand cups her cheek, his thumb ghosting over where a bruise used to be, where it all seemed to start between the two of them. She cards her fingers through his mussed hair and she feels him smirk, captures it between her teeth. His lips find her jawline, then her neck and it’s like she’s drunk again, can’t feel her limbs and doesn’t know which way is up or down.  
  
He lifts her up onto the kitchen counter with one arm easily and she mumbles - _show-off_ \- and he chuckles against her neck, makes her shiver all over again. The half-empty beer bottle and the box of granola bars clatter the floor and they both laugh and it feels like she’s finally grounded, but flying at the same time.  
  
After, when the storm subsides to an acceptable downpour, she wraps John B’s bandanna around her wrist. He jokes that she can keep it as a souvenir and she scoffs, narrows her eyes at him and lets her gaze linger for a little longer than necessary. He’s sitting against the headboard, one arm behind his head, a blanket draped dangerously low over his hips, and Sarah’s a little breathless at the sight of him.  
  
There are Pogues and Kooks, ex-best friends and new ones. Somewhere out there, someone’s drawn a distinct line between The Cut and Figure Eight, boys like Rafe and Topper are getting high and bad-mouthing those who have to work for a living. Sarah’s phone lights up with a text message from Ward and she knows there’s a whole world out there, still divided, still angry, still set in their ways.  
  
But John B looks at her like she’s golden and against all odds, she feels like she’s meeting herself for the first time.


End file.
